Credit: Instagram
Fresh on the heels of news that Joseph Duggar was arrested for allegedly molesting an underage girl, an email his father, Jim Bob, sent to him has been revealed.
Jim Bob sent the email on March 25, noting that Joseph was going to have to face “major consequences” for what he’d done.
YouTuber LilyArchive obtained the email via the Freedom of Information Act. In it, Jim Bob also told Joseph he’s “so sorry” for what he’s “going through,” and he insisted he and matriarch Michelle “love” their son “very much.”
“Looks like you have a long road ahead of you but God will get you through,” he said. “You have made some terrible decisions but God has already forgiven you, if you have asked him.”
Jim Bob also said the Duggar family was helping to support Joseph’s wife, Kendra, who was arrested after she was charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment.
“It is ridiculous that they charged Kendra and arrested her,” Jim Bob said in his note. “We’ve hired [a lawyer] to help Kendra. We are praying that we can get her charges dropped.”
“You are just going to have to accept the situation at this point and it’s also fine to pray that God would have mercy on you, but you’re probably gonna face… major consequences for several years to come,” Jim Bob also claimed. “I pray that God will bring other Christians into your life to encourage you and that you can also point people to Christ even through the time you’re in jail and prison. God will be with you! He will get you and your family through!”
He also noted that, in the bible, David “royally messed up” but “repented and became a man after God’s own heart.”
The Duggar patriarch also told Joseph that he should take after the biblical Joseph, whom he was named after, as he was “also in prison” and made “lemonade out of lemons.”
“I love you and we’ll be praying for you. Don’t give up,” he added. “God is not finished with your life.”
While Joseph did end up getting out of jail on a $600,000 bond, while he was away, Kendra called him to inform him she did not have their kids.
“I think Friday has probably been my hardest day, but that’s crazy to say because Wednesday was crazy hard,” she told him during a March 24 phone call. The “Friday” she referred to was the day she was arrested.
“But it’s just like, when you then take my babies from me, they were who I was just going to pour my life into,” she continued.
As part of Kendra’s release from prison, it was ruled that she was not allowed to have any contact with the victims of her alleged crimes, i.e., her children.
At this time, Joseph and Kendra are not allowed to contact their kids in any way/shape/form until their court date in Arkansas, which is due to take place on April 29.
In his note to Joseph, Jim Bob said all of his brothers were stepping up to help Kendra.